Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Trusting God in the Desert

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - Trusting God in the Desert · Voddie Baucham Sermons

0:00
Speaker 1: When we come this week to our text right in
0:03
Speaker 1: the middle of Exodus sixteen, and here we looked on
0:10
Speaker 1: last week at this process of God shaping Israel in
0:14
Speaker 1: the desert, of God forming them as his people in
0:19
Speaker 1: the desert, and of him using this process. We also
0:24
Speaker 1: pointed to the importance of our understanding these things in
0:29
Speaker 1: light of progressive revelation, in light of the way that
0:33
Speaker 1: God reveals himself progressively through the scriptures. And we saw
0:38
Speaker 1: that in doing so, we don't fall into the trap
0:43
Speaker 1: of seeing ourselves as completely divorced from things like Exodus sixteen,
0:50
Speaker 1: into the trap of believing that somehow passages like Exodus
0:54
Speaker 1: sixteen are irrelevant to us. We saw in last week
0:57
Speaker 1: how Jesus himself used image directly from Exodus chapter sixteen
1:05
Speaker 1: in order to teach about his relationship to the believer,
1:09
Speaker 1: as this bread from Heaven, this Bread of life. We
1:14
Speaker 1: saw earlier when we paused and looked at the Lord's
1:17
Speaker 1: Supper in light of the passover, how Jesus is that
1:22
Speaker 1: passover lamb, And how when we gather before the Lord's
1:25
Speaker 1: Supper we are remembering and also following through with the
1:30
Speaker 1: perpetual reminder of God's provision in and through the Exodus,
1:37
Speaker 1: that he gives a perpetual reminder for Israel and says
1:40
Speaker 1: that this is to be a forever thing, and that
1:43
Speaker 1: through the Lord's Supper we are keeping this forever thing.
1:49
Speaker 1: But now we see him not only in the Lord's Supper,
1:53
Speaker 1: but we also see him as this bread from heaven.
1:57
Speaker 1: We see him as the fulfilled of this type of
2:03
Speaker 1: God's provision for his people. In the midst of the desert.
2:09
Speaker 1: We also saw his presence with his people in the cloud.
2:14
Speaker 1: Today we look at the bread more carefully, and we
2:17
Speaker 1: look at the way that Israel interacts with God through
2:22
Speaker 1: the bread, and the way that God interacts with and
2:24
Speaker 1: shapes Israel through the giving of the bread. This would
2:29
Speaker 1: become important as later on Israel will be tempted to
2:36
Speaker 1: forget God as their provider. They would forget that God
2:42
Speaker 1: is the one who gives us this day our daily bread.
2:45
Speaker 1: How are they going to forget that? Well, they're going
2:47
Speaker 1: to come into a land and not be wandering in
2:49
Speaker 1: the desert anymore, and so they will forget this daily dependence.
2:53
Speaker 1: They will have agriculture, and through their agriculture, they will
2:57
Speaker 1: have cycles that are dependable. So that they know when
3:01
Speaker 1: the rainy seasons come, when it's time to plant, and
3:04
Speaker 1: when it's time to harvest, and they can plan their meals.
3:07
Speaker 1: They don't have to be dependent on God providing this
3:11
Speaker 1: food for them, permanent homes, not having to wander around aimlessly,
3:22
Speaker 1: the temple, not having to wait for this sign of
3:27
Speaker 1: the presence of God in the cloud, an army not
3:33
Speaker 1: having to be defended by a pillar of cloud and
3:37
Speaker 1: a pillar of fire, not having depend on God's supernatural deliverance,
3:43
Speaker 1: but depending on themselves and ultimately a king, a human
3:47
Speaker 1: being to whom they can look. And with all of
3:52
Speaker 1: these temptations, it's going to be important that they continue
3:56
Speaker 1: to remember the God who took care of them in
3:59
Speaker 1: the desert. And when they don't remember God, or when
4:03
Speaker 1: they remember God wrongly, they are tempted towards sin, and
4:08
Speaker 1: in fact they're worship for example, of bail and asheroth.
4:12
Speaker 1: This is about the God of the rains, the God
4:16
Speaker 1: who brings the crops, the God who brings agriculture. And
4:19
Speaker 1: part of their thinking was this, we serve this sort
4:23
Speaker 1: of desert nomadic god, and he can get us water
4:26
Speaker 1: out of rocks, and he can give us bread from
4:29
Speaker 1: heaven and provide us quail to eat. However, now that
4:33
Speaker 1: we've come into this land of the plains, this land
4:37
Speaker 1: of agriculture, there is another god, a pair of gods,
4:42
Speaker 1: the Bale and the Asherah, upon whom you depend when
4:45
Speaker 1: you're in this land. So in order to hedge our bets,
4:49
Speaker 1: we'll worship the God of Israel, who got us out
4:52
Speaker 1: of Egypt. But we will also erect statues and monuments
4:58
Speaker 1: and idols to Bail and to Asherah, so that they
5:02
Speaker 1: can smile upon us and bring the reins and we
5:05
Speaker 1: can have what we need to eat. So again, their
5:10
Speaker 1: idolatry is rooted and grounded in this idea of forgetting
5:15
Speaker 1: that it is God who gives us this day our
5:19
Speaker 1: daily bread. But that was then, that's the simplistic thinking
5:27
Speaker 1: of Israel in the desert. That's the simplistic thinking of
5:31
Speaker 1: Israel when they come out of the desert and go
5:34
Speaker 1: into the plains and into the mountains. That certainly we
5:38
Speaker 1: don't do this. Certainly, there aren't things that have brought
5:43
Speaker 1: us away from having an attitude toward God that says,
5:47
Speaker 1: give us this day our daily bread. Really, your five
5:55
Speaker 1: year plan, your ten year plan, retirement plan, IRA, your
6:04
Speaker 1: four oh one k's, your stocks, your bonds, your mutual funds,
6:11
Speaker 1: your real estate investments, the equity in your home, your
6:16
Speaker 1: rental properties, your social security that's coming. All of these
6:23
Speaker 1: things tend to put us in a position where we
6:28
Speaker 1: forget that it is God who gives us this day
6:33
Speaker 1: our daily bread. Which is why when any of the
6:36
Speaker 1: things on the aforementioned list go south, we immediately get
6:42
Speaker 1: this sort of sky is falling mentality, because we, just
6:48
Speaker 1: like Israel, tend to forget that we are utterly dependent
6:53
Speaker 1: upon God, day in day out, and so we do
7:00
Speaker 1: need this reminder. We do need to see ourselves here
7:07
Speaker 1: in chapter sixteen, look with me, beginning at verse thirteen.
7:10
Speaker 1: We'll look at thirteen through twenty one. In the evening,
7:18
Speaker 1: Quayo came up and covered the camp, and in the
7:22
Speaker 1: morning they lay around the camp, and when the dew
7:28
Speaker 1: had gone up, I'm sorry, do lay around the camp.
7:35
Speaker 1: Let me start that again. In the evening quail came
7:39
Speaker 1: up and covered the camp, and in the morning de
7:42
Speaker 1: lay around the camp, and when the dew had gone up,
7:48
Speaker 1: there was on the face of the wilderness a fine
7:51
Speaker 1: flakelike thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the
7:56
Speaker 1: people of Israel saw it, they said to one another,
7:59
Speaker 1: what is it? For they did not know what it was.
8:03
Speaker 1: And Moses said to them, it is the bread that
8:08
Speaker 1: the Lord has given you to eat. This is what
8:12
Speaker 1: the Lord has commanded. Gather of it, each one of
8:15
Speaker 1: you as much as he can eat. You shall each
8:19
Speaker 1: take one omer according to the number of the persons,
8:24
Speaker 1: that is in each that each of you has in
8:30
Speaker 1: his tent. And the people of Israel did so. They
8:37
Speaker 1: gathered some more, some less. But when they measured it
8:41
Speaker 1: with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over,
8:46
Speaker 1: and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them
8:51
Speaker 1: gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said
8:55
Speaker 1: to them, let no one leave any of it over
9:00
Speaker 1: till the morning. But they did not listen to Moses.
9:08
Speaker 1: See a second, we heard that phrase before. Haven't we
9:12
Speaker 1: get used to it, because you're going to hear it
9:14
Speaker 1: again and again and again. They did not listen to Moses.
9:26
Speaker 1: Some left part of it till morning, and it bred
9:30
Speaker 1: worms and stank. Moses was angry with them morning by morning.
9:36
Speaker 1: By the way, that's another phrase you need to get
9:38
Speaker 1: used to. Moses was angry with them, we just kind
9:43
Speaker 1: of fill in the blanks the rest of the way through.
9:45
Speaker 1: They did not listen to Moses. Something happened, and Moses
9:50
Speaker 1: was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it
9:57
Speaker 1: as much as each as much as he could. But
10:01
Speaker 1: when the sun grew hot, it melted. What do we
10:07
Speaker 1: learn from this? What do we see in Israel and
10:13
Speaker 1: in ourselves as a result of this experience with the manna?
10:19
Speaker 1: Three things I want you to see. First, I want
10:21
Speaker 1: you to see that God provides for his people supernaturally.
10:27
Speaker 1: God provides for his people supernaturally Verses thirteen to fifteen.
10:31
Speaker 1: Make this clear that in the evening quail came up
10:34
Speaker 1: and covered the camp, and in morning dew lay around
10:38
Speaker 1: the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there
10:41
Speaker 1: was this on the face of the wilderness, a fine
10:45
Speaker 1: flakelike thing, finest frost on the ground. People of Israel
10:50
Speaker 1: saw it, they said to one another, what is it?
10:52
Speaker 1: It's part of where its name comes from, by the way,
10:54
Speaker 1: for they did not know what it was. And Moses
10:58
Speaker 1: said to them, it is the bread that the Lord
11:01
Speaker 1: has given you to eat. There are two types of
11:04
Speaker 1: provision here. One I'd call providential provision. This is just
11:09
Speaker 1: God and his providence bringing them to a place and
11:12
Speaker 1: bringing about circumstances that provide for them, bringing about this
11:17
Speaker 1: abundance in this for example, with the quail. Listen to
11:22
Speaker 1: this from John Walton and Victor Matthews. Small plump migratory
11:30
Speaker 1: quail often come through the Sinai on their way north
11:34
Speaker 1: from the Sudan to Europe, generally in the morning or
11:38
Speaker 1: in the months of March and April. They generally fly
11:42
Speaker 1: with the wind and are driven to ground or water
11:45
Speaker 1: if caught in a crosswind. In their exhaustion, It is
11:49
Speaker 1: not unusual for them to fly so low that they
11:52
Speaker 1: can be easily caught. Quail looking for a place to
11:56
Speaker 1: land and rest have been known to sink small boats,
12:01
Speaker 1: and in the Sinai they have been noted to cover
12:04
Speaker 1: the ground so densely that some land on the tops
12:11
Speaker 1: of others. Quail just pile up on top of each other.
12:18
Speaker 1: So it's not that, you know, God sort of makes
12:21
Speaker 1: these quails appear ex nihilo. He doesn't invent quail out
12:26
Speaker 1: of nothing. But this is a migration, a normal migration
12:30
Speaker 1: of quail. But the problem is that the normal migration
12:35
Speaker 1: of quail is only during a certain period of time
12:40
Speaker 1: and not nearly enough to feed well over a million people.
12:46
Speaker 1: So God, in his providence has brought them to a
12:49
Speaker 1: place where there is a food source, but providentially during
12:54
Speaker 1: this time, he provides it in such abundance that they
12:58
Speaker 1: can eat and eat regular early off of this food source.
13:03
Speaker 1: So again, it's not that it's unknown for quail to
13:06
Speaker 1: be in this area. It's known for quail to be
13:09
Speaker 1: in this area. It's not that it's unknown for the
13:11
Speaker 1: quail to cover the ground. It's known for quail to
13:14
Speaker 1: cover the ground, but in this magnitude it's unheard of,
13:19
Speaker 1: and with this consistency, it's unheard of. So God provides
13:25
Speaker 1: for them providentially. And we know that that's the way
13:28
Speaker 1: that God provides for all of us providentially. In his providence,
13:31
Speaker 1: everything that we have is provided for us. I don't
13:36
Speaker 1: care what it is that you have, what it is
13:37
Speaker 1: that you do, Everything that you have is a result
13:40
Speaker 1: of God's providential care for you. Yes, but I did
13:44
Speaker 1: this and I did that. Of course you did, but
13:48
Speaker 1: you didn't invent whatever you did it with, and you
13:50
Speaker 1: didn't give yourself the strength to do it. You didn't
13:54
Speaker 1: decide where you would be born. You didn't decide what
13:57
Speaker 1: technologies you would have at your disposal. Well, during this
14:00
Speaker 1: particular period in history, it is God and his providence
14:04
Speaker 1: who has done this for you. God cares for his
14:08
Speaker 1: people providentially. But not only is there this providential provision,
14:13
Speaker 1: but there's also the miraculous provision. That's where you get
14:18
Speaker 1: into the manna. The manna is not something seen there
14:23
Speaker 1: before or seen their sins. There are many who've tried
14:28
Speaker 1: to argue that the mana is one of a number
14:31
Speaker 1: of normal sort of occurrences in the desert. However, all
14:35
Speaker 1: of those things fail to satisfy. John Calvin notes that
14:42
Speaker 1: there are eight factors that exclude a natural explanation and
14:47
Speaker 1: demand that we see this as no less than a
14:50
Speaker 1: miracle in the desert. And by the way, it's important
14:55
Speaker 1: to note the difference between these two things. It's important
14:58
Speaker 1: to note the difference between God's providence and God's miraculous activity.
15:07
Speaker 1: We use that word miracle far too often, and by definition,
15:12
Speaker 1: if something happens all the time and it's part of
15:16
Speaker 1: the normal course of things, it is not miraculous. The
15:20
Speaker 1: example that I've used dozens of times from this very
15:24
Speaker 1: spot is childbirth. I love children as much as the
15:28
Speaker 1: next person, probably more. But childbirth is not a miracle.
15:35
Speaker 1: We know how it happens, and it happens all day,
15:40
Speaker 1: every day. It is not a miracle. There has only
15:44
Speaker 1: been one birth that was miraculous, and that was the
15:47
Speaker 1: birth of Jesus Christ. Amen. Every other birth has been providential. Okay,
15:55
Speaker 1: it's been providential, not miraculous miracles. You know, missing a
16:05
Speaker 1: car on your way here, that wasn't miraculous. That was providential.
16:12
Speaker 1: When something is miraculous, it's not part of the normal
16:15
Speaker 1: course of things. Eight things, as Calvin knows, points to
16:20
Speaker 1: the man of being miraculous. Number one, it didn't appear before.
16:23
Speaker 1: Now you ever thought about that. It didn't appear before. Now.
16:29
Speaker 1: They've been in the desert for a while, but up
16:32
Speaker 1: to this point there hadn't been any mana So it
16:36
Speaker 1: wasn't Moses didn't say, hey, God wants you to know something.
16:40
Speaker 1: You know, this stuff that's been on the ground every day,
16:42
Speaker 1: You can actually eat that. See, that would have been providential. Amen.
16:47
Speaker 1: We've been walking around as funny, funny thing, guys, I
16:49
Speaker 1: didn't even know this, but we've been walking around and
16:52
Speaker 1: there's this stuff on the ground and it melts when
16:54
Speaker 1: it gets hot. Right, here's what God wanted me to
16:56
Speaker 1: tell you. You can eat that stuff the way it happened.
17:01
Speaker 1: It didn't appear before now. Number Two, it was not
17:05
Speaker 1: affected by weather or season. It's not affected by weather
17:10
Speaker 1: or season. This is not something that just appeared seasonally.
17:14
Speaker 1: This is something that wasn't affected by weather or season.
17:18
Speaker 1: Number Three, it was sufficient for the people. It was
17:23
Speaker 1: sufficient for the people, perhaps millions of people, and there
17:29
Speaker 1: was enough to do on the ground forming manna for
17:33
Speaker 1: these people to eat. Four. It was doubled for the sabbath.
17:40
Speaker 1: It was doubled for the Sabbath. This is a natural occurrence.
17:45
Speaker 1: Number one. If it's a natural occurrence, doesn't make sense
17:49
Speaker 1: that it only happened six days out of the week.
17:52
Speaker 1: If it's just a natural occurrence, right, that makes no
17:57
Speaker 1: sense whatsoever. This was just a natural occurrence that people
18:00
Speaker 1: really what natural occurres? Do you know? It only takes
18:02
Speaker 1: place six days out of the week and always doesn't
18:06
Speaker 1: take place on the same one day out of the
18:10
Speaker 1: week every week. That's not a natural occurrence. That's a
18:13
Speaker 1: supernatural occurrence. Five. If they preserved it overnight, it putrefied. Six,
18:23
Speaker 1: it followed them wherever they went. It followed them wherever
18:29
Speaker 1: they went. Seven as soon as they entered a fruitful country,
18:33
Speaker 1: the manna ceased. Once they didn't need it anymore. It
18:38
Speaker 1: was gone. Once they came into the land that God
18:41
Speaker 1: promised them, it was gone. It's not there. It's not
18:45
Speaker 1: there today. For people who go wandering in the desert
18:48
Speaker 1: of the Sinai, there's no manna for them. It was gone.
18:51
Speaker 1: And eight, the Sabbath portion did not decay. This is miraculous.
18:59
Speaker 1: Every morning, go collect it. Go collect all you can eat,
19:01
Speaker 1: but eat all you collect. Don't try to keep it
19:04
Speaker 1: until the next day. And they tried to keep it
19:06
Speaker 1: until the next day, but it's spoiled and went rotten,
19:08
Speaker 1: and there was worms. But what we're going to see
19:11
Speaker 1: next week is that on the Sabbath, God provides beforehand
19:16
Speaker 1: for the Sabbath, there's a double portion. There's miracle number
19:20
Speaker 1: one that there's a double portion, and that they're able
19:22
Speaker 1: to go get a double portion. Here's miracle number two.
19:25
Speaker 1: Any other day you keep it overnight, it goes rotten,
19:28
Speaker 1: but you keep it for the Sabbath, and it's good
19:31
Speaker 1: for the next day. This is miraculous provision. This is
19:37
Speaker 1: not just God's providential care. This is God's miraculous care
19:43
Speaker 1: for his people. This reminds both Israel and us that
19:47
Speaker 1: God is not bound by the circumstances that limit us. Amen,
19:53
Speaker 1: God is not bound by the circumstances that limit us.
19:56
Speaker 1: This is what they have to remember, This is what
19:58
Speaker 1: they have to be taught, because remember their entire lives.
20:02
Speaker 1: For all of these people, they've been in slavery and Egypt,
20:05
Speaker 1: and their thought had to be that God either was
20:08
Speaker 1: not listening to their prayers or that he was not
20:10
Speaker 1: as powerful as the gods of Egypt and therefore couldn't
20:14
Speaker 1: deliver him to deliver them. So what does he do
20:17
Speaker 1: through those ten plagues? He demonstrates that he's more powerful
20:20
Speaker 1: than the gods of Egypt. He could have done it
20:23
Speaker 1: in one plague, but he does it in ten in
20:26
Speaker 1: order to disabuse them of the notion that somehow the
20:28
Speaker 1: gods of Egypt are real and have any kind of
20:31
Speaker 1: real power. And then secondly, he takes them through the desert.
20:36
Speaker 1: He could have just brought them immediately into the land
20:38
Speaker 1: of Promise, but he doesn't. He brings them into the
20:41
Speaker 1: desert and they stay there for forty years, and God
20:45
Speaker 1: provides for them for forty years so that this generation
20:49
Speaker 1: and the next generation and every generation after it will
20:54
Speaker 1: know that God sovereignly and supernaturally cares for He is people.
21:02
Speaker 1: This is not normal. They are not normal. There is
21:08
Speaker 1: a difference between what God does for others and what
21:13
Speaker 1: God does for them. He is their children, We are
21:18
Speaker 1: his children. God's care for us is not like his
21:23
Speaker 1: care for others. And it's not because Israel was special,
21:28
Speaker 1: and it's not because we're special. It is because God
21:32
Speaker 1: has set his love on us as his people in
21:36
Speaker 1: order to display his glory. That's the only reason and
21:41
Speaker 1: explanation for it. This is what drives us to prayer
21:48
Speaker 1: and worship. This is what separates Christianity from other religions.
21:58
Speaker 1: You see, it's not it's not that we are appeasing
22:02
Speaker 1: God or controlling God. It is that God is sovereign,
22:09
Speaker 1: that he created the world, and that he sustains the
22:12
Speaker 1: world and everything in it, and we are thereby dependent
22:16
Speaker 1: upon God because of it. This is what drives us
22:21
Speaker 1: to prayer. This is what drives us to worship. What
22:24
Speaker 1: drives you away from prayer and worship self reliance. Self reliance,
22:32
Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I like to
22:36
Speaker 1: do and go out to eat, and sometimes I remember,
22:40
Speaker 1: sometimes I don't, but our server comes. I just like
22:43
Speaker 1: to sort of break the ice for spiritual conversation and
22:47
Speaker 1: just ask, you know, we're about to pray for our food.
22:49
Speaker 1: Is there any way in particular that we could be
22:51
Speaker 1: praying for you? You know? The most common answer that
22:56
Speaker 1: I get to that question. There are some people who
22:58
Speaker 1: stop and they say, yes, you can be praying about this,
23:00
Speaker 1: this and this. I can't. Yeah, I can't remember. You know,
23:02
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times God has just
23:06
Speaker 1: shown in his providence the blessing of this so many times. Hey,
23:12
Speaker 1: we're about to eat, we're going to pray for our food.
23:16
Speaker 1: Anyway in particularly we can be praying for you? Yes,
23:19
Speaker 1: I just got a call earlier that dot dot dot
23:21
Speaker 1: please pray for me. Yes, after work today, I'm going
23:26
Speaker 1: to be driving to go see my mother. She's sick
23:28
Speaker 1: and we don't know what's going to be just at
23:30
Speaker 1: moments like that. But that's not the normal answer. The
23:35
Speaker 1: normal answer to we're about to pray for our food,
23:38
Speaker 1: is there any way we can pray for you? Is nope,
23:41
Speaker 1: everything's okay. In other words, we only need prayer when
23:49
Speaker 1: things are not okay. When things are okay, I got this,
23:56
Speaker 1: I got this, I am in control, everything is all right.
24:02
Speaker 1: I'm managing it all, and I don't need God right now. However,
24:07
Speaker 1: if the wheels fall off and I run into anything
24:10
Speaker 1: that's too big for me, then I'll let you know
24:13
Speaker 1: and we can call on God. Folks, hear me in this,
24:19
Speaker 1: hear me in this. This is why regular family worship
24:22
Speaker 1: in your home is so important. This is why regular
24:26
Speaker 1: prayer in your home is so important. This is why
24:30
Speaker 1: calling our families together and going before God day by
24:34
Speaker 1: day is so important. Because if we're not doing that,
24:38
Speaker 1: then here's what we're communicating to our children. We don't
24:42
Speaker 1: need God. And all of a sudden, we're not engaging
24:46
Speaker 1: in family worship, we're not praying regularly, we're not calling
24:50
Speaker 1: upon God, and suddenly difficulty comes. We get a phone
24:54
Speaker 1: call and somebody sick, We get a phone call and
24:57
Speaker 1: somebody's died. We get a phone call and there's some
25:00
Speaker 1: tragedy in the family, and all of a sudden, we
25:02
Speaker 1: want to gather the family together and say, let's pray.
25:05
Speaker 1: What if you just communicated. Prayer is for when we
25:09
Speaker 1: need something. Prayer is for when things go badly. Prayer
25:18
Speaker 1: is for when we don't have this under control. That's
25:22
Speaker 1: what we communicate. But what does regular family worship communicate
25:26
Speaker 1: to our children? Regular daily family worship, daily devotions communicate
25:32
Speaker 1: to our children. We need God every day. I need
25:36
Speaker 1: THEE every hour. That's what it communicates to our children.
25:43
Speaker 1: Then the phone call comes and we pray, and it's
25:46
Speaker 1: not foreign to us. It's just who we are. And
25:49
Speaker 1: why is it who we are? It's who we are
25:52
Speaker 1: because we recognize that we are dependent upon God for
25:56
Speaker 1: our daily bread. May I ask you a question, sir,
26:00
Speaker 1: are you leading regular family devotions in your home or
26:03
Speaker 1: are you communicating to your wife and to your children
26:06
Speaker 1: that you don't need God right now? Are you in
26:12
Speaker 1: prayer on a regular basis or are you showing your
26:16
Speaker 1: family by your actions that it's just not that important.
26:25
Speaker 1: Is it something that you've started and then you ran
26:28
Speaker 1: out of steam because it became too much of a
26:33
Speaker 1: routine for you. Because if that's the case, may I
26:38
Speaker 1: ask you why you still brush your teeth? That's a routine. Yeah, Well,
26:45
Speaker 1: if I don't do that, my breast starts to think,
26:47
Speaker 1: Just think, But what do you think happens to you
26:49
Speaker 1: spiritually when you're disconnecting from God like that, when you're
26:55
Speaker 1: acting as though it's not something that you need on
26:59
Speaker 1: a regular and ongoing basis. I am not calling upon
27:05
Speaker 1: you to do this because I believe that there's going
27:09
Speaker 1: to be a quid pro quote. I'm calling upon you
27:13
Speaker 1: to do this because I believe that God is worthy
27:16
Speaker 1: of it, and because I believe that your soul needs it,
27:21
Speaker 1: that your family needs it. I'm calling you to this
27:25
Speaker 1: because this is who we are. His mercies are new
27:29
Speaker 1: every morning, and we ought to thank Him for them
27:32
Speaker 1: every day. If we're not doing it, then what are
27:39
Speaker 1: we saying about what our family is based on. What
27:44
Speaker 1: are we saying about what's central to us and what
27:48
Speaker 1: essentral to us? What are we saying about the desperate
27:52
Speaker 1: need of our souls to feed on Christ and to
27:55
Speaker 1: be reminded of the Gospel day after day after day day.
28:02
Speaker 1: I'm not reminding you of this so that you can
28:05
Speaker 1: go home and be good. I'm reminding you of this
28:08
Speaker 1: because you're not good, and you need to be reminded
28:12
Speaker 1: how not good you are. You need the good news
28:16
Speaker 1: every day. Your family needs the good news every day.
28:20
Speaker 1: This is our daily bread. Are we reading the scriptures
28:29
Speaker 1: and feeding upon them? Again, I'm not telling you you
28:33
Speaker 1: need to do this so that you can be good.
28:37
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that you need to do this because
28:39
Speaker 1: you're not. Because you're not, and you need to be
28:46
Speaker 1: reminded of it. Your family needs to be reminded of it. Secondly,
28:59
Speaker 1: not only does God supernaturally, but he provides sufficiently sufficiently.
29:09
Speaker 1: Looking at verse sixteen, this is what the Lord God
29:12
Speaker 1: has commanded. Gather of it, each one of you as
29:18
Speaker 1: much as he can eat. You shall each take an
29:22
Speaker 1: omer according to the number of the persons that each
29:25
Speaker 1: of you has in his tent. And the people of
29:28
Speaker 1: Israel did so. They gathered some more, some less. But
29:32
Speaker 1: when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much
29:36
Speaker 1: had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.
29:40
Speaker 1: Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. Folks,
29:44
Speaker 1: don't miss this. They weren't just sustained. They were satisfied. Amen.
29:52
Speaker 1: They were satisfied. Gather as much as you can eat.
29:56
Speaker 1: God is not stingy, Amen, God is not stingy. This
30:03
Speaker 1: is one of the major fallacies of those outside of Christianity. See,
30:08
Speaker 1: we believe that outside of Christianity, there is this life
30:12
Speaker 1: of plenty, there is this life of abundance, There is
30:16
Speaker 1: this life of overflowing joy, provision, substance, everything else. But
30:24
Speaker 1: when you walk into Christianity, you walk into it with
30:32
Speaker 1: your head hung low, and you walk into it with
30:35
Speaker 1: a dour face, because everybody knows that when you become
30:39
Speaker 1: a Christian, it's the end of joy, it's the end
30:45
Speaker 1: of satisfaction, it's the end of overflowing abundance. And in Christianity,
30:51
Speaker 1: you're not really a Christian unless you're miserable. That's the
30:57
Speaker 1: great myth. That's not the God whom we serve. The
31:03
Speaker 1: God whom we serve gives to us in abundance. He
31:07
Speaker 1: is not stingy. He gives sufficiently. Notice some of these phrases,
31:15
Speaker 1: each one of you as much as he can eat.
31:17
Speaker 1: It says, some gathered more, some gathered less. Whoever gathered
31:21
Speaker 1: much had nothing left over. Whoever gathered little had no lack.
31:25
Speaker 1: In other words, compared to an Omer, he gives him
31:28
Speaker 1: this idea of an Omer, it's a daily ration of bread.
31:31
Speaker 1: You go out and gather an omer, you go out
31:32
Speaker 1: and gather it, and then when they measured it against
31:36
Speaker 1: the omer, what they found was that the people who
31:39
Speaker 1: had gathered a little more they didn't have too much,
31:45
Speaker 1: and the people who had gathered a little less they
31:48
Speaker 1: didn't have any lack. In other words, each person could
31:51
Speaker 1: gather what they needed and there was enough for everyone
31:55
Speaker 1: to have whatever it was that they needed to be satisfied.
32:01
Speaker 1: This is how God provides for us people. And don't
32:05
Speaker 1: miss the significance of this. The desert is a foreboding
32:08
Speaker 1: place of scarcity and want. It has challenges in terms
32:13
Speaker 1: of food and water. This is why you don't go
32:16
Speaker 1: through the desert. You go through the desert, amen. And
32:19
Speaker 1: when you go through the desert, you want to make
32:21
Speaker 1: sure that you have enough supplies to go through the desert.
32:24
Speaker 1: And one of the difficulties in going through the desert
32:26
Speaker 1: is having enough livestock to carry the stuff you need,
32:31
Speaker 1: but not too much so that you then lose your supplies.
32:34
Speaker 1: So it's this balancing act. We gotta have enough water,
32:38
Speaker 1: but we can't overburden our animals and our people with
32:41
Speaker 1: carrying all the water. So how far can we get?
32:43
Speaker 1: Where's the next place that we can get water. Where's
32:46
Speaker 1: the next place that we can get food. This is
32:48
Speaker 1: how you go through a desert, folks. And yet God
32:52
Speaker 1: has his people in the desert, and they are satisfied
32:56
Speaker 1: every day. The desert is a challenge in terms of
33:06
Speaker 1: its harsh elements, and yet again they have clothing, and
33:14
Speaker 1: their clothing is sufficient. They're not burned and chapped by
33:19
Speaker 1: the sun because God cares for them in the desert,
33:25
Speaker 1: and his care is sufficient. Hence, God's providence shines all
33:31
Speaker 1: the more when they go into the Land of Promise.
33:35
Speaker 1: It is as though God has given them this forty
33:38
Speaker 1: year history in order to say, really, you're worried. Now,
33:47
Speaker 1: you're worried in the land flowing with milk and honey,
33:50
Speaker 1: that the God who sustains you in the desert can't
33:54
Speaker 1: sustain you here. Again, saints, don't get arrogant with this,
34:02
Speaker 1: because this is you and this is me. God saves us,
34:07
Speaker 1: and then we worry about whether or not He can
34:09
Speaker 1: sustain us, and we worry about whether or not he
34:11
Speaker 1: can keep us. God saves us, and something happens, and
34:15
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, the God who could take you
34:17
Speaker 1: from death to life can't be depended upon to get
34:22
Speaker 1: you the rest of the way. This is our natural tendency,
34:29
Speaker 1: and this is why we need the desert and the
34:32
Speaker 1: remembrance of the desert. This is why we need to
34:36
Speaker 1: remember God's sufficient provision and supernatural provision in the person
34:41
Speaker 1: and work of Christ, that he provided Christ for us.
34:46
Speaker 1: That Christ is our bread, and Christ is most assuredly enough.
34:52
Speaker 1: He is the God Man. He is God who wrapped
34:55
Speaker 1: himself in flesh. He is God who not only took
34:58
Speaker 1: flesh upon himself, but took upon himself, who took the
35:02
Speaker 1: penalty for sin upon himself, who died and rose again
35:05
Speaker 1: on the third day. He is God who has paid
35:09
Speaker 1: for the sins of his people. He is God who
35:11
Speaker 1: has rescued us from ourselves. How much more can he
35:17
Speaker 1: be dependent upon for sufficiency in our everyday lives. This
35:24
Speaker 1: is the measure message of the desert. God provides for
35:29
Speaker 1: his people supernaturally. God provides for his people sufficiently. There
35:37
Speaker 1: is nothing you need that God cannot supply. And the
35:42
Speaker 1: Christian walk is not about you wandering aimlessly in want
35:47
Speaker 1: all the time. Come to me, are you labor and
35:57
Speaker 1: they're heavy laden? And I will give you rest. This
36:02
Speaker 1: is what he provides thirdly, and only does God supply
36:14
Speaker 1: for his people supernaturally and sufficiently. But God supplies for
36:21
Speaker 1: his people and provides for his people daily daily. He's
36:29
Speaker 1: not far from us. Look at the next part of this.
36:34
Speaker 1: Moses said to them, let no one leave any of
36:36
Speaker 1: it over till morning. But they did not listen to Moses.
36:40
Speaker 1: Some left part of it till the morning. Again, leave
36:43
Speaker 1: it in your house, not leave it on the ground.
36:46
Speaker 1: You only take from the ground what you need. And
36:48
Speaker 1: if you leave it on the ground, the sun comes
36:50
Speaker 1: up and it melts. Nothing to worry about, He's saying.
36:53
Speaker 1: Don't leave it in your house. Don't hoard it. Don't
36:57
Speaker 1: hoard it. Look at my barns. My barns are filled
37:04
Speaker 1: to overflow. It's awesome. I'm good. Now you remember that
37:11
Speaker 1: parable What does Jesus say, you fool tonight? Your soul
37:17
Speaker 1: is going to be required of you. What goods all
37:19
Speaker 1: that stuff that you stored in your barns? Don't store
37:24
Speaker 1: it over, he says. But they did not listen to Moses.
37:27
Speaker 1: There's that phrase. Some left part of it until morning,
37:32
Speaker 1: and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was angry
37:37
Speaker 1: with them. Morning by morning, they gathered it each as
37:41
Speaker 1: much as he could eat, but when the sun grew hot,
37:44
Speaker 1: it melted. This taught Israel a number of things that
37:54
Speaker 1: it also teaches us. There are a number of things
37:58
Speaker 1: that it teaches us on the positive and appropriate side,
38:02
Speaker 1: and if we don't think about it rightly, there are
38:04
Speaker 1: a number of things that it teaches us on the
38:06
Speaker 1: other side. Let me start with the first. On the
38:08
Speaker 1: positive side, this taught Israel discipline. They had to go
38:14
Speaker 1: gather the provisions every day. This taught them discipline. And
38:20
Speaker 1: interestingly enough, this is one of the things that we
38:24
Speaker 1: tend to forget in our relationship with God, that it
38:28
Speaker 1: does involve discipline, that it does involve us committing to
38:34
Speaker 1: some things regularly. You know, there's such an emphasis on
38:39
Speaker 1: this idea of you know, Christianity's not a religion, it's
38:42
Speaker 1: a relationship. And so we just sit back and we
38:44
Speaker 1: relax and we go with the flow, and it's just
38:47
Speaker 1: all about the you know, the moment and the here
38:49
Speaker 1: and the now and da da da da dah. And
38:51
Speaker 1: because of that, we move away from the idea of
38:53
Speaker 1: disciplining ourselves. Apostle Paul makes it clear in his Epistle
39:01
Speaker 1: to Timothy and elsewhere that he disciplined himself, and that
39:05
Speaker 1: we are to discipline ourselves. This was a way that
39:09
Speaker 1: God was teaching his people discipline. But daily they would
39:14
Speaker 1: go and gather. Secondly, it taught them humility. It taught
39:18
Speaker 1: them humility. How so well taught them humility because they
39:24
Speaker 1: had to go and gather what God provided, and whatever
39:28
Speaker 1: God provided was what they ate. In addition to humility
39:34
Speaker 1: and discipline, it taught them dependence. It taught them dependence.
39:41
Speaker 1: They had to depend on God. Go gather your food,
39:47
Speaker 1: only gather your food for today. Whoa what if? Here's
39:51
Speaker 1: the question, Here's why you store it over until tomorrow?
39:56
Speaker 1: What if God forgets us? And how many of us
40:04
Speaker 1: live like that? As though God would give his only
40:10
Speaker 1: begotten son to die for our sins, to redeem us
40:14
Speaker 1: and to save us, only to later lose track of us,
40:20
Speaker 1: to forget us. That is not our God. It teaches dependence.
40:29
Speaker 1: And the only reason you keep it over is just
40:32
Speaker 1: in case God for you. Maybe he won't forget us altogether,
40:36
Speaker 1: but maybe tomorrow it won't be enough, So I need
40:41
Speaker 1: to make sure that we have enough. And it also
40:46
Speaker 1: tested their faith in all of this. It tested their faith. However,
40:54
Speaker 1: with your hard hearts, with my hard heart, it can
40:59
Speaker 1: teach us other lessons. To the hard heart, you don't
41:04
Speaker 1: learn discipline, you learn to be discontent. Manna again you
41:16
Speaker 1: go from We get to live another day because in
41:20
Speaker 1: the midst of the desert God provided bread again to
41:24
Speaker 1: manna again. The heart also becomes resentful. Instead of humility
41:34
Speaker 1: and dependence upon God. We learn resentment because we don't
41:38
Speaker 1: want to be humble and we don't want to be
41:41
Speaker 1: dependent upon God. We want to be independent and proud
41:46
Speaker 1: and arrogant, which is why the heart then yearns for
41:52
Speaker 1: independence from God. But what is the difference. The difference
41:59
Speaker 1: in this list and this second list is a question
42:03
Speaker 1: of perspective. Do I see myself as a person in
42:08
Speaker 1: desperate need of a deliverer or do I see myself
42:13
Speaker 1: as a person who can do just fine on my own?
42:18
Speaker 1: And our natural tendency is the latter and not the former.
42:24
Speaker 1: My natural tendency is to see myself as a person
42:27
Speaker 1: who can do just fine on my own, and not
42:31
Speaker 1: as a person who's dependent upon God. Not as a
42:34
Speaker 1: person who recognizes that I need God to give me
42:37
Speaker 1: this day my daily bread. But my natural tendency is
42:41
Speaker 1: to say I got this God, and if I run
42:44
Speaker 1: into anything I can't handle, then I'll call you. That's
42:49
Speaker 1: my natural tendency, and it's your natural tendency. And because
42:52
Speaker 1: that's our natural tendency, when we run up against this
42:55
Speaker 1: truth and this reality that we are dependent upon God,
43:03
Speaker 1: then it doesn't make us humble, it makes us resentful.
43:14
Speaker 1: What does that look like. I'll tell you what it
43:16
Speaker 1: looks like. You're going through your Christian life, and as
43:24
Speaker 1: you go through your Christian life, you experience a difficulty.
43:29
Speaker 1: And when you experience that difficulty, the disappointment, whatever it is,
43:34
Speaker 1: you go to your doctor and you get bad news.
43:38
Speaker 1: You overcome an area of sin in your life, and
43:43
Speaker 1: then you fall back into it. You have a relationship
43:47
Speaker 1: that becomes disappointing to you. Whatever it is, whatever it is,
43:51
Speaker 1: you go through it, and all of a sudden, the
43:55
Speaker 1: wheels fall off. Everything's bad. But God and his grace
43:59
Speaker 1: and his and in his kindness brings you through that situation.
44:07
Speaker 1: And the case of the physical ailment is a physical ailment.
44:10
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden you're in despair, You're despondent
44:13
Speaker 1: everything else, but God brings you through that and all
44:16
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it's praise God. Here's my testimony. God
44:20
Speaker 1: brought me through. Or if it's something that has been
44:24
Speaker 1: holding you down, some kind of addiction, and then you fall,
44:30
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, God gets you back
44:32
Speaker 1: up again and you gain victory again, and it's praised God. Amen, Hallelujah,
44:38
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. It's good. Or if it's some kind
44:41
Speaker 1: of relational issue, there's a relationship that's harmful or hurting
44:45
Speaker 1: you or disappointing, disappointing you and God delivers you from that,
44:49
Speaker 1: or God heals that relationship all of a sudden, it's Amen, Hallelujah,
44:53
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. God is good. You're stronger for it.
45:00
Speaker 1: A year later, two years later, you're sick again. And
45:11
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, instead of saying, I know God,
45:19
Speaker 1: I'm dependent upon God every day. I was here before,
45:24
Speaker 1: I'll probably be here again. God took me by the
45:29
Speaker 1: hand and walked me through it before. God's going to
45:31
Speaker 1: take me by the hand and walk me through it again.
45:34
Speaker 1: Instead of that attitude, our attitude becomes one of resentment.
45:43
Speaker 1: I thought we'd settled this, God, I thought we were
45:48
Speaker 1: done with this. I thought this was over I thought
45:54
Speaker 1: we were finished with this. I went through the sickness
45:57
Speaker 1: or whatever it was, and I learned something, and I
46:00
Speaker 1: got closer to you. And now all of a sudden,
46:03
Speaker 1: after teaching me my lesson and me getting closer to you,
46:05
Speaker 1: it happens again. What's wrong? Why don't you love me? See,
46:11
Speaker 1: this is the natural tendency. They hurt me again. I
46:22
Speaker 1: can't believe you let him hurt me again. I can't
46:24
Speaker 1: believe you let him disappoint me again. This is the
46:27
Speaker 1: natural tendency. And it is all rooted and grounded in
46:35
Speaker 1: self reliance. It is all rooted and grounded in the
46:40
Speaker 1: perspective that does not understand that when God said, when
46:47
Speaker 1: Jesus said to us, when you pray, say our Father,
46:50
Speaker 1: who are in heaven, hollowd be your name, your kingdom.
46:54
Speaker 1: Come here will be done on earth that is in heaven.
46:56
Speaker 1: Give us this day our daily bread. Give us this
47:01
Speaker 1: day our daily bread, he meant that. What he meant
47:04
Speaker 1: was that our prayer life was to be rooted and
47:06
Speaker 1: grounded in dependence. That we are constantly to remind ourselves
47:12
Speaker 1: that we are dependent upon God. You don't have it
47:20
Speaker 1: figured out, and you won't have it figured out, because
47:27
Speaker 1: the Christian life is not something you figure out. It
47:33
Speaker 1: is something you walk through and are shaped by, and
47:38
Speaker 1: are formed by and conformed to the image of Christ by.
47:50
Speaker 1: Christianity is not something we use, something we become. Difficulty
48:03
Speaker 1: is life, amen, and becoming a Christian doesn't mean that
48:11
Speaker 1: life becomes something other than difficulty. Becoming a Christian means
48:17
Speaker 1: that your difficulty becomes something that is less significant than
48:22
Speaker 1: the reality to which you now hold. That's what becoming
48:26
Speaker 1: a Christian means. Becoming a Christian doesn't mean I don't
48:29
Speaker 1: get sick anymore. Becoming a Christian means that when I
48:32
Speaker 1: get sick, like everybody else gets sick, I don't become
48:36
Speaker 1: afraid like those who have no hope, because I recognize
48:39
Speaker 1: that my life is hidden with Christ. Becoming a Christian
48:44
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that I never battle again with besetting sins.
48:50
Speaker 1: It means that besetting sins remind me of my dependence
48:55
Speaker 1: upon God and that my sanctification is not complete yet.
49:00
Speaker 1: Being a Christian doesn't mean that people don't hurt you
49:03
Speaker 1: or disappoint you anymore. But being a Christian means that
49:08
Speaker 1: you no longer put your hope in those people who
49:11
Speaker 1: hurt you and disappoint you. But your hope is in Christ,
49:14
Speaker 1: who has redeemed you, and who is a friend that
49:17
Speaker 1: is closer than a brother, who will never disappoint you.
49:20
Speaker 1: And he's the only one who won't disappoint you. And
49:25
Speaker 1: it means remembering that you disappoint God more than any
49:28
Speaker 1: individual has ever disappointed you. And yet by his grace,
49:33
Speaker 1: it is covered in his blood. So remember that when
49:38
Speaker 1: your fellow man disappoints you and falls short. All of this,
49:46
Speaker 1: all of this we learn from bread provided in the desert,
49:53
Speaker 1: because this bread is not just bread. It is God's supernatural,
50:02
Speaker 1: sufficient daily provision for his people. And whether you're talking
50:09
Speaker 1: about the Old Covenant or the New Covenant, this is
50:15
Speaker 1: our relationship with God. And again these are not my words.
50:19
Speaker 1: These are Jesus' words when he says that he is
50:25
Speaker 1: the bread of life. He is the true bread that
50:31
Speaker 1: comes from God, the true bread that comes from Heaven.
50:36
Speaker 1: So that Christ is my supernatural, sufficient daily provision from God.
50:48
Speaker 1: I need Jesus. You need Jesus just like your body
50:59
Speaker 1: needs food to eat every day. You need Jesus. This
51:07
Speaker 1: is why we gather week after week. This is why
51:13
Speaker 1: we set before these ordinary means of grace again and
51:17
Speaker 1: again and again, because this weekly reminder is symbolic of
51:23
Speaker 1: the daily reminder that we need God. You're not okay, saints.
51:32
Speaker 1: You're not good enough, you're not strong enough, you're not
51:37
Speaker 1: smart enough, you're not righteous enough, You're not anything enough.
51:45
Speaker 1: But the good news is Christ is more than enough.
51:52
Speaker 1: Oh sinner, have you come into this room today depending
51:57
Speaker 1: on anything other than Christ as your daily bread? Have
52:03
Speaker 1: you dared to walk into this room depending on yourself
52:09
Speaker 1: to be good enough, depending on yourself to be righteous enough,
52:14
Speaker 1: depending on yourself to be wise enough, depending on yourself
52:19
Speaker 1: to get you from this day to tomorrow. Please please
52:26
Speaker 1: let that go. You can't get yourself out of this
52:31
Speaker 1: room on your own intelligence and your own righteousness apart
52:35
Speaker 1: from the mercy of God. Throw yourself upon his mercy.
52:41
Speaker 1: Cling to his mercy in the person of Jesus Christ.
52:45
Speaker 1: Repent of your sin, turn from it, run to Jesus,
52:49
Speaker 1: beg for God's forgiveness, and don't let him go until
52:52
Speaker 1: you have it, because that is indeed your only hope.
52:57
Speaker 1: You need Christ every day, every hour, every moment, and
53:08
Speaker 1: there will never be a moment when you don't need Christ.
53:15
Speaker 2: He is our bread, said from heaven. Let's pray, Oh God,
53:34
Speaker 2: it is so easy for us to look at Israel
53:38
Speaker 2: in the desert and not see ourselves. It is so
53:43
Speaker 2: easy to look at Israel in the desert and point
53:47
Speaker 2: a wagging finger of condemnation because they failed again, because
53:56
Speaker 2: they didn't believe, again, because they didn't obey again, because
54:03
Speaker 2: they have to be rebuked again, because they have to
54:06
Speaker 2: be reminded again. But, oh God, would you help us
54:10
Speaker 2: see ourselves in this? Would you help us see that
54:18
Speaker 2: we two have been delivered, that we two have been
54:23
Speaker 2: provided for, and that we too have become self reliant,
54:32
Speaker 2: that we too have become arrogant, that we too are disobedient,
54:39
Speaker 2: that we two act as though we have no desperate.
54:43
Speaker 1: Need of you. And in your reminding, would you also
54:48
Speaker 1: remind us that there is good news? And the good
54:53
Speaker 1: news is that though we are faithless, he remains faithful.
55:00
Speaker 1: News is, though we've dropped the ball yet again, you
55:04
Speaker 1: are not depending upon us to carry it. The good
55:09
Speaker 1: news is that though we have become lazy and laxadaisical,
55:15
Speaker 1: that you do not slumber, and you do not sleep.
55:21
Speaker 1: The good news is that when you reprove and you
55:25
Speaker 1: rebuke your children. It is to conform us to the
55:29
Speaker 1: image of Christ. Grant by your grace, that we might
55:32
Speaker 1: receive it as precisely that, and that we might cling
55:37
Speaker 1: all the more diligently to the Cross. Grant by your grace,
55:44
Speaker 1: that those who have entered this room trusting in anything
55:47
Speaker 1: other than Christ, would flee to him, would cling to him,
55:54
Speaker 1: would trust in him, would hope in him, and in
55:57
Speaker 1: nothing and no one else. Gret This we pray, so
56:05
Speaker 1: that Christ might indeed have the fullness of the reward
56:09
Speaker 1: for which he died. This we ask in his name
56:17
Speaker 1: and for his sake. Amen.